If you already made up your mind about moving to the DR for whatever reasons, please read this info below...
The DR is saturated with idle professionals looking for work or a better job than the one they hold.
These same professionals that includes a vast pool of foreigners like you, are already saturated on the Dominican lifestyle, that must be said is unlike any other country you ever set foot on.
They hold academic titles of all kinds, PhD?s, Doctorates, etc...
Some, if not a good 3/4, can speak, read and write more than 2 to 3 non-native tongues. That's not including the prevalent Dominican Spanish!
Living costs in the DR are not comparable to the budgeting style you're accustomed to. The where you live, eat, go to school at, shop, commute, entertain and even socialize with can in turn affect your bottom line in ways you can't begin to make sense of.
Housing:
The DR just like any other country on the face of Earth shares the same attributes that rule the social-economic divide which is ever present in all nations. But the DR owns the distinction that you could buy the most expensive home in the country and it won't let off the common ills that affect rich and poor without distinction.
Water, electricity, public services, shortages, crime and too many to list here, do affect you no matter where you live even if it's to a lesser degree only. Home values are mostly based on speculation and trends supported by the local realtors or homeowner's greed.
You can buy a home for millions over the price than a next door equal or even lesser comparison home sold the next day or the day before.
That's the housing market of the DR, pure and simply, an art of selling to the deepest pockets they can find.
Why would a bank offer mortgages in the DR if their money is not guaranteed by the house itself like in any other financial system? Then that's where you start to understand the real estate market of the DR.
Banks do lend money for big items like homes, but do so with a requirement that the buyer doles a huge and always offsetting down payment amount of the value that house is really worth if a new construction was started on the same lot from scratch.
Banks and financial institutions in the DR never lose on those contracts, never.
The car market is not any different to this same "art", where vehicles are valued at a price that far exceeds their going depreciation even when the odometer is far beyond the conservative.
Buying a car in the DR is like getting married, it's a commitment you should be really aware of and with the right partner. People don't change cars in the DR like most developed nation's citizens change their leases year after year.
Don't be fooled into thinking that the owner of that 1967 Chevy Nova was on a Classic car spin, but in fact that was the car he uses for his daily commute to work and pretty much everything else. That includes towing stalled vehicles of family and friends, mudanza y acarreo, ambulance for the extended family and friends, mobile entertainment unit and so many others too many to list here. A true workhorse if you could call it anything.
Cars last longer in the DR due to the ingenious ways that mechanics can retrofit any part from a Hummer to a mini cooper without a hitch...
But again, some shouldn't be allowed in the road but a junkyard.
So you want to move to the DR?
Imagine, not! Better yet do as follows:
Go to your electrical service panel and switch all the breakers off, shut off your water main. Put you perishable foods in the refrigerator in the garbage can (they don't smell now but trust me they will in a short time).
Keep your gas open, but don't use more than one or two crates of your range and forget the oven as it didn't exist at all. The microwave? What microwave? Stuff it into a closet.
Go out to shop for your grocery list, but this time you must walk some more, as you want to get the lowest price for that previous insignificant lime you bought without a care before for a few cents more.
Keep in mind as you shop, that all this food will have to be consumed today when it comes to perishable foods that need refrigeration. Buy the portions that would suffice for you and those in your household today, as all must eat the same meal to save money. Make sure to pick some vegetables and stuff of that sort common to the DR's diet, like Platanos, Yuca, etc...
Try on all your shoes and those that you can't stand after 10 minutes of walking back and forwards as you do your house chores (cleaning the bathroom, sweeping and mopping the floors, windows, bedrooms, etc...) all those you couldn't stand after the first 5 minutes pack them into a box and store them with a label that reads "Donate".
Turn on the TV and look for a Spanish speaking channel (they're everywhere nowadays) and turn the volume up more than the usual. Now go to your bedroom and blast the radio all the way up, and as you sit in your living room make a note of the interference the radio blasting away makes your TV watching a "challenge". That is the most common thing that would happen when your next door neigh' opts to listen to the latest Bachata hit mid afternoon while you sit at home watching the news or El Show del Medio Dia clone.
Now let's cook the day's meal! Pick all those Platanos and peel away the skin as best you can, making a 1/4 of an inch deep cut along the lines is the best so far, then putting the knife tip in between and under one to make a lip you could easily hold with your finger as you pull away the pre-cut section works fine. Peel as well the Yuca and any other weird stuff you got at the market.
Fill a pot with water add some salt to taste and dump the vegetables (That you pre-cut in halves for the Platanos and 4 to 6 inches long for the Yuca) into the boiling water, cover and let it boil for some 20 minutes or until you see all the Platanos floating and the Yuca is soft to probe with a table fork.
Put some oil on a fraying pan on the front burner (as you used the second and last remaining one with a knob from the four you took 2 knobs off) and add some of that vegetable or corn based oil, cut some onions in rings and drop them into the oil, let them become tender and caramelized a bit.
Add some more oil and let it heat up a tad more and drop some "Dominican Queso blanco de Freir" (if you can't find it, just buy a local version of a white hard cheese and covered with flour before you fry it) and dip into the oil until it becomes medium brown, like if it was sprinkled with Coffee grinds.
Fry some eggs, any style you want using the same oil that remains from the onions and cheese frying pan. Place the food on the middle of the table for all to serve from and enjoy a pure Dominican meal ready in minutes! OH! Don't forget some Tang!
That concludes the first stage, wait for my second post later...
The DR is saturated with idle professionals looking for work or a better job than the one they hold.
These same professionals that includes a vast pool of foreigners like you, are already saturated on the Dominican lifestyle, that must be said is unlike any other country you ever set foot on.
They hold academic titles of all kinds, PhD?s, Doctorates, etc...
Some, if not a good 3/4, can speak, read and write more than 2 to 3 non-native tongues. That's not including the prevalent Dominican Spanish!
Living costs in the DR are not comparable to the budgeting style you're accustomed to. The where you live, eat, go to school at, shop, commute, entertain and even socialize with can in turn affect your bottom line in ways you can't begin to make sense of.
Housing:
The DR just like any other country on the face of Earth shares the same attributes that rule the social-economic divide which is ever present in all nations. But the DR owns the distinction that you could buy the most expensive home in the country and it won't let off the common ills that affect rich and poor without distinction.
Water, electricity, public services, shortages, crime and too many to list here, do affect you no matter where you live even if it's to a lesser degree only. Home values are mostly based on speculation and trends supported by the local realtors or homeowner's greed.
You can buy a home for millions over the price than a next door equal or even lesser comparison home sold the next day or the day before.
That's the housing market of the DR, pure and simply, an art of selling to the deepest pockets they can find.
Why would a bank offer mortgages in the DR if their money is not guaranteed by the house itself like in any other financial system? Then that's where you start to understand the real estate market of the DR.
Banks do lend money for big items like homes, but do so with a requirement that the buyer doles a huge and always offsetting down payment amount of the value that house is really worth if a new construction was started on the same lot from scratch.
Banks and financial institutions in the DR never lose on those contracts, never.
The car market is not any different to this same "art", where vehicles are valued at a price that far exceeds their going depreciation even when the odometer is far beyond the conservative.
Buying a car in the DR is like getting married, it's a commitment you should be really aware of and with the right partner. People don't change cars in the DR like most developed nation's citizens change their leases year after year.
Don't be fooled into thinking that the owner of that 1967 Chevy Nova was on a Classic car spin, but in fact that was the car he uses for his daily commute to work and pretty much everything else. That includes towing stalled vehicles of family and friends, mudanza y acarreo, ambulance for the extended family and friends, mobile entertainment unit and so many others too many to list here. A true workhorse if you could call it anything.
Cars last longer in the DR due to the ingenious ways that mechanics can retrofit any part from a Hummer to a mini cooper without a hitch...
But again, some shouldn't be allowed in the road but a junkyard.
So you want to move to the DR?
Imagine, not! Better yet do as follows:
Go to your electrical service panel and switch all the breakers off, shut off your water main. Put you perishable foods in the refrigerator in the garbage can (they don't smell now but trust me they will in a short time).
Keep your gas open, but don't use more than one or two crates of your range and forget the oven as it didn't exist at all. The microwave? What microwave? Stuff it into a closet.
Go out to shop for your grocery list, but this time you must walk some more, as you want to get the lowest price for that previous insignificant lime you bought without a care before for a few cents more.
Keep in mind as you shop, that all this food will have to be consumed today when it comes to perishable foods that need refrigeration. Buy the portions that would suffice for you and those in your household today, as all must eat the same meal to save money. Make sure to pick some vegetables and stuff of that sort common to the DR's diet, like Platanos, Yuca, etc...
Try on all your shoes and those that you can't stand after 10 minutes of walking back and forwards as you do your house chores (cleaning the bathroom, sweeping and mopping the floors, windows, bedrooms, etc...) all those you couldn't stand after the first 5 minutes pack them into a box and store them with a label that reads "Donate".
Turn on the TV and look for a Spanish speaking channel (they're everywhere nowadays) and turn the volume up more than the usual. Now go to your bedroom and blast the radio all the way up, and as you sit in your living room make a note of the interference the radio blasting away makes your TV watching a "challenge". That is the most common thing that would happen when your next door neigh' opts to listen to the latest Bachata hit mid afternoon while you sit at home watching the news or El Show del Medio Dia clone.
Now let's cook the day's meal! Pick all those Platanos and peel away the skin as best you can, making a 1/4 of an inch deep cut along the lines is the best so far, then putting the knife tip in between and under one to make a lip you could easily hold with your finger as you pull away the pre-cut section works fine. Peel as well the Yuca and any other weird stuff you got at the market.
Fill a pot with water add some salt to taste and dump the vegetables (That you pre-cut in halves for the Platanos and 4 to 6 inches long for the Yuca) into the boiling water, cover and let it boil for some 20 minutes or until you see all the Platanos floating and the Yuca is soft to probe with a table fork.
Put some oil on a fraying pan on the front burner (as you used the second and last remaining one with a knob from the four you took 2 knobs off) and add some of that vegetable or corn based oil, cut some onions in rings and drop them into the oil, let them become tender and caramelized a bit.
Add some more oil and let it heat up a tad more and drop some "Dominican Queso blanco de Freir" (if you can't find it, just buy a local version of a white hard cheese and covered with flour before you fry it) and dip into the oil until it becomes medium brown, like if it was sprinkled with Coffee grinds.
Fry some eggs, any style you want using the same oil that remains from the onions and cheese frying pan. Place the food on the middle of the table for all to serve from and enjoy a pure Dominican meal ready in minutes! OH! Don't forget some Tang!
That concludes the first stage, wait for my second post later...